Obama Says Iran Can Have Nuke Power, Israel Says It Will Build a Bomb

Obama says Iran may have a right to nuclear energy provided it proves by the end of the year it's intentions are peaceful.

Israel says Iran may have a bomb by the end of the year.

Washington Post:

Obama says Iran's energy concerns legitimate
By NANCY ZUCKERBROD
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 9:24 AM

LONDON -- President Barack Obama suggested that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it proves by the end of the year that its aspirations are peaceful.

In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, he also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor.

Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons.

"What I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations," Obama said, adding that the international community also "has a very real interest" in preventing a nuclear arms race.

The president has indicated a willingness to seek deeper international sanctions against Tehran if it does not respond positively to U.S. attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program.

Obama has said Tehran has until the end of the year to show it wants to engage with Washington.

"Although I don't want to put artificial time tables on that process, we do want to make sure that, by the end of this year, we've actually seen a serious process move forward. And I think that we can measure whether or not the Iranians are serious," Obama said.

Obama's interview offered a preview of a speech he is to deliver in Egypt this week, saying he hoped the address would warm relations between Americans and Muslims abroad.

"What we want to do is open a dialogue," Obama told the BBC. "You know, there are misapprehensions about the West, on the part of the Muslim world. And, obviously, there are some big misapprehensions about the Muslim world when it comes to those of us in the West."

Obama leaves in the evening on a trip to Egypt and Saudi Arabia aimed at reaching out to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. He is due to make his speech in Cairo on Thursday.

Obama sounded an optimistic note about making progress toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although he offered no new ideas for how he might try to secure a freeze on new building of Israeli settlements. The United States has called for a freeze, but Israeli leaders have rejected that.

Asked what he would say during his visit about human rights abuses, including the detention of political prisoners in Egypt, Obama indicated no stern lecture would be forthcoming.

He said he hoped to deliver the message that democratic values are principles that "they can embrace and affirm."

Obama added that there is a danger "when the United States, or any country, thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture."

Newsmax:

Israel: Iran Could Build Nuke by Year's End
Monday, June 1, 2009 9:29 PM

Teheran could have enough low-grade uranium to build a nuclear bomb by the end of the summer, Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz, head of Israel’s defense establishment’s research division, warned the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

Iran would not be able to immediately deploy a nuclear weapon, as the low-enrichment uranium would have to be processed into highly-enriched weapons-grade material before it could be used for a bomb, The Jerusalem Report reported.

Baidatz's comments echoed those of his boss, Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin, who told the committee last month that "Iran is intentionally advancing its nuclear development in such a way so as not to cross any nuclear red lines, by enriching low-grade uranium that is not sufficient for weapons development, but that can quickly be adapted to weapons-grade uranium in such a short period of time that the process can't be sabotaged."

But Baidatz added that there is "no connection between Teheran's diplomatic engagement and the trajectory of the military nuclear effort to attain the bomb" - and that the nuclear trajectory was outpacing the diplomatic one.

Iran was closely watching the Obama administration’s response to North Korea's nuclear tests, and moderate Arab countries were closely monitoring Iran's nuclear aspirations, Baidatz said, according to the Post.

The nation’s June 12's Iranian elections are essentially irrelevant, he argued. Both of the leading candidates - incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and reformist challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi - are equally worrisome for Israel.